Earth rounds perspective

Note: this assumes an understanding of the Three dimensions of Evolution. When reading about evolution, the development of Mankind is usually covered in seven epochs of the current physical CoF (globe) in the current fourth mineral CoL (round) .. and so one could wonder: how about the other CoL (rounds) and CoF (globes)?

The Earth goes through seven CoL of which we are currently in the fourth 'mineral'. The first three were repetitions of the previous planetary stages, and specifically the main CoL in each (see also Schema FMC00.203 in Overview of solar system evolution).

The fourth current CoL is the start of a totally new development. Lorenzen explains how this is the start of a new cycle of creation, where Christ is the new creator taking over from the Father principle (see also creation in the Gospel of John). Note this is also the start of the current physical solar system with the planets, the way we know if from mineral science and sensory perception.

Whereas the previous CoL were repeats of lesser importance, the next CoL are of full importance because now Man becomes co-creator participating in the new cosmos (1905-02-06-GA090B, see also Meaning of Free Man Creator)

Each CoL or round unfolds in seven CoF or globes: in the first three downwards we have take something off and in and caring, from fast to slower this is de-acccelarating. The middle is the main globe and turning point and the slowest, afterwards the three next CoF speed up again. So there is retardation slowing down, a seeming persistance, and then again an acceleration going upwards again. (1904-06-16-GA090A).

Each next stage works with short repeats of the previous CoL that are of lesser importance for development (on Earth these are the first three CoL), and this repetition also takes place within the CoF.

Illustrations

Schema FMC00.298 is a synthetic table with descriptive quotes from various lectures on different aspects of the Earth's CoL (and CoF). Click to enlarge.

Schema FMC00.298A is a simplified version of the reference FMC00.298 to highlight the process of Man in context of the Meaning of Free Man Creator', his relationship with the kingdoms, and the aspect of recapitulation of CoC at CoL level.

Schema FMC00.219 is an illustration by Rudolf Steiner of the Mars and Mercury passages in the Earth's mineral round or CoL=4

Schema FMC00.057B positions the above FMC00.219 for ease of reference

Schema FMC00.057C provides an overview scheme for the study of the evolution of our current Earth planetary stage and CoC, the formation of the current physical solar system with the planets, the emergence of the spectrum of elements and ethers, and nature's kingdoms on Earth.

Note the threefold recapitulation at CoL level, at CoF level, and then at epoch level; as well as major events such as the Mars transit, and the separation of Sun and Moon. Compare also with FMC00.302 on Earth's seven epochs.

Lecture coverage and references

1904-06-09-GA089

[Pralayas - concept and also between the CoL or rounds]
The time between one manvantara and the next passes in a state in which everything living on the Earth sleeps, so to speak. But it isn't comparable to normal human sleep. In normal sleep only the activities of understanding and sense are interrupted, but you can see the physical body. The sleeping state of the Earth must be thought of differently. No earthly being is visible during this sleeping state. This state would be perceptible only to the opened eye of the so-called dangma, the highest developed seer. This state is indescribable in words, for our words are inadequate for this kind of existence. I find no words in any language for this state. Therefore the developed seer says something quite different in order to give an idea of this state.
He says: imagine a plant. You see this plant. Now imagine a kind of plaster impression of the plant, but in such a way that the plant itself is empty space and a Round is the plaster. Consider that the plaster is spiritual and only perceptible for certain senses. Whoever can see the plant cannot see the plaster impression at the same time, that is, the negative of the plant. Something similar is what the developed seer would perceive of the Earth during the Pralaya sleep. The Earth is not there. It is the hollow form, swimming in a great, mighty sea of the highest spiritual beings that is gradually disappearing and out of which the Being of the Earth itself flows.
Then something begins to originate within this hollow space, something not yet perceptible to the physical senses; it is only perceptible to the highly developed seer who can consciously move in the spiritual plane.
At the beginning of the Earth's existence he would see a sphere in space, a purely spiritual sphere in which only the spiritual is present. Every time before a new Round begins, our Earth exists in such a spiritual state. When it awakens from the Pralaya sleep, it does so as such a sphere. The spiritual seer perceives it in a wonderful reddish glimmer. But that Earth contains everything that later becomes Earth. The densest bodies are also contained in this sphere.
[editor: about the red sphere, see Schema FMC00.570]
How can we imagine this?
It can be made clear by means of a simple process. Imagine a glass full of water. The water is fluid. When you cool the temperature sufficiently, the water becomes ice. You have the same thing in front of you as previously—ice is nothing other than water, only in another form. Raise the temperature and the ice reverts to water, with higher temperatures even to steam.
By this example you can imagine how all matter derives from the spirit through densification.

The spiritual sphere - seen only by the seer's developed eye - densifies gradually after it passes through a small pralaya. It can then be seen by a less developed seer's eye.

Then follows a kind of short sleeping state, and now the sphere is visible to the astral eye, that is, for whoever has developed this sense on the astral plane.

Again a pralaya state follows, and the sphere appears again as physical solid matter. Only now can physical eyes see it, physical ears hear it, physical hands grasp it. That is the fourth stage.

Then a short pralaya comes again. This stage disappears and again an astral sphere presents itself, but with much more highly developed beings.

An analogous state appears in the sixth round, also only visible to the spiritual seer.

Thereafter another pralaya and then a state only visible to the highest developed seer.

Then follows what is invisible even to the Dangma. A long pralaya follows and then the whole process begins again. This happens seven times. In this way the Earth is transformed from the lowest to the highest level.

[CoL or rounds]
Let us now follow the first Round. We can study it best by observing what exists on our Earth where it is most solid. In the first Round there were no mineral forms yet, no physical nature energy and no chemical energy. The Earth had carried out the previous evolution only to create a foundation for physical existence; it created this foundation in order to prepare a physical existence in the fourth Round. Our Earth looked like a fiery mass, with such tremendous temperatures that none of our present substances could have the form they now have. All substances were jumbled up in that fiery primal porridge—allow me to use that trivial word—in homogeneous, undifferentiated matter. Theosophy says: the Earth was in the fiery stage. Common fire is not meant, however, but fire of a higher, spiritual nature. There were no chemical elements involved. But what was in the interior of this matter was active.
Two kinds of spiritual beings were active [in this warmth]:

those we call Dhyani Chohans,

and those beings who had not yet descended to physical materiality, who had a partially spiritual body, and who flowed through the fiery matter with tremendous rapidity.

We see here a continuous emergence and disappearance of irregular forms, also of forms that remind us of those that will exist on Earth at a much later time.
The emerging and disappearing seems to follow a pattern. Forms arise which are reminiscent of later crystals and plants—even something that takes on human form, and then disperses. The humans who would later incarnate lived in that fire, modeling and preparing their bodies. That is how the Earth's first Round appears to us. Then followed the transition from this fiery, flowing Earth to the sleep-state.
The second Round began in the same spiritual way. “Ether” is finer than our present-day gas, but denser than the Earth was in the previous stage. In this very fine matter what we call chemical elements formed. You can find this second stage wonderfully described in religious books, where it is written that the divine beings ordered everything according to mass, number and weight. What had earlier been irregular was now organized in chemical elements according to number. The chemist will understand me, for he knows the regular periodic system of the elements. The individual substances were not yet related to each other. Now, however, as matter became differentiated, we see the most wonderful forms coming into existence which remind us of later forms, only they are not yet solid: star-like forms, angular forms, tetrahedrons, polyhedrons, round forms and so on. The forms that will later constitute nature are intimated. As in the first Round crystal forms were prearranged, the plant forms were constituted in the second Round. Then all flowed away; the astral and spiritual natures went through a Pralaya stage again and re-appeared in the third Round.
When we consider the physical state of the third Round, we find matter in a quite different state. It is not yet differentiated as air and water, but forms a kind of mist, or steam. It is no longer an ether form, but rather somewhat as cloud formations are today. And within these mist formations, which we find described in old sagas—the sagas of Nebelheim (home of mist) and Niflheim describe this state—we see matter in another form, no longer organized according to number, but equipped with energy. The esoteric researcher speaks here of the Law of Selected Relationships. The chemical substances organize themselves according to the Law of Selected Relationships. Now, however, in the third Round, energy emerged, which allowed the small to become larger and expand. The substances could organize themselves from within, energize themselves. Not only the first plant forms, which we met in the second Round, appeared, but growth was also possible. The first animal forms appeared, which we would consider to be extremely grotesque today. Gigantically large, colossal shapes formed themselves out of the mass of mist. For the occultist there is something of truth when he looks at the clouds and sees that one cloud looks like a camel, another like a horse. In the third Round the beings were mist-like forms, which reproduced by one transforming itself into the other, one deriving from the other, like the lower cell organisms, which are reminiscent of this process. These animal bodies, which formed out of the mist, could now provide the basis for those individualities who came from previous worlds to find bodies. The human being could now incarnate. He found a body which allowed him to appear, at first in an imperfect, primitive, groping way. Failed incarnations were also possible. We could say that during the third Round beings existed on the Earth who were intermediate beings between man and animal, in which the human being did not feel completely right, but could nevertheless incarnate.
Then another Pralaya occurred, and then the fourth Round. That is the Round to which we belong today. The Earth passed through the spiritual state, went through the astral and etheric states and finally arrived at the physical state which we have now reached. During the first Round the foundation for the mineral kingdom was formed, during the second Round the foundation for the vegetable kingdom was formed, during the third Round the possibility for animal forms was established. And now, during the fourth Round, the human being acquired the ability to take on the form he has today.
Let us consider the state of our physical Earth somewhat more closely. The state of the Earth in this fourth Round must be described as being much denser than the states of the previous Rounds. First there was a fiery state, then a misty one, then one between air and water. Still during the beginning of the fourth Round we had a kind of gushing matter, similar to protein. Gradually it all condensed, and what we have today as matter is nothing other than the condensed, originally gushing matter, exactly as ice is condensed water. At the beginning of the fourth Round all beings were created so they could live in this gushing matter.
Man had a form similar to the one he has now, but his consciousness was extremely dim, comparable to that of a dreaming person. He dreamed his being in a kind of sleeping consciousness; the spirit was still lacking. Let us consider this state more closely. The human being was possible in that flowing, gushing state. We call these people of the first race dream-men. It is difficult to describe them.
[editor: See Polarian epoch]
Another stage followed this one, in which matter became denser and separated into a more spiritual and a more physical materiality, comparable to the North and South Poles.
...
[section - see lecture]
...
The task of physical evolution is that what is created for us humans achieve its objective. You will not find a human being as he is today on Earth on any other planet. Beings, yes—but not human beings. The Earth exists in order that “I”-conscious human beings could be created. Through the first four Rounds the kingdoms of nature evolved in order that in the fourth man could be made a self-conscious being, who could reflect himself in his body. He will rise to higher levels of evolution, something that few can understand correctly.
In the next, the fifth Round, the mineral kingdom will disappear. All mineral matter will be transformed to vegetable matter. Then the vegetable kingdom will reach its culmination and ..
.. in the next (sixth) Round the animal kingdom will form the lowest kingdom.
During the seventh Round the human being will achieve his highest level of evolution. He will have become what planetary evolution intends.

1904-06-15-GA090A

is called the 'Next rounds'

1904-09-03-GA091

Fourth globe inside versus previous outside
At the same time, we can also call that which Man reached in the three former globes as the highest: these are beings into which Manas worked from outside. It is the task of earthly evolution to transform the body in such a way, that Manas can truly work from inside.
And now you shall also become clear about the difference between Man who stands at the fourth stage of evolution and Man who stood at the third evolutionary stage: that which formerly worked on him from outside, now emerges from inside.
Now everything must be properly prepared. Let us think of the lunar period as having passed. Now everything had to be repeated briefly, and previous stages were necessary for this to happen. First, the Lemurian Age was sufficiently developed, so that Manas could undertake the transformations.
The Lemurian race also had seven sub-stages. In the fourth (Lemurian) sub-stage, Manas emerges from within the human being.

1904-08-10-GA090A

1904-10-31-GA089

and others still to be integrated

1905-02-06-GA090B

explains (see build-up on 1905-01-30-GA090B) that:

In every planetary stage, there is always one round or CoL where Man goes through the main development, the other six rounds are of little importance for Man 'as is' does not progress much in these. They are important though for other beings as they have meaning for these to achieve their goals.

See also Schema FMC00.203 on Overview of solar system evolution

From the lecture text it appears, though it is not stated explicitly so this is an interpretation (to be reviewed), that in the first three planetary stages the other future rounds (after the one that matters for evolution) are thrown off (as stated above with little meaning), but that from the fourth middle stage onwards, the other future rounds do have importance for the future development of Man as something fully new is added to Man. Freely translated (p58-59 in DE):

And now the next cycles do start to have a meaning for the future development of Man. They are no longer sheaths that are through off, but they start to have a meaning for the future cycles for Man.

1905-09-29-GA093A

[note in the below, rounds means Conditions of Life but can also be read as corresponding to Conditions of Consciousness or planetary stages of evolution]

Limestone is derived from animals. The Juras, for example, consist of such an accumulation of calcium. They were previously covered by the sea and are formed from the cast-off shells of sea-creatures. Thus, the younger limestone mountains have arisen out of animals and the primeval rocks out of plants. The plant kingdom gradually passes over into the mineral kingdom. Everything solid on the Earth has arisen out of a 'plant-Earth'. This mineralizing process can be studied through the development of coal out of plants.
The mineral kingdom in its present state of separation only came into existence during the fourth round [during the Atlantean epoch]. After this, the entire mineral kingdom will be spiritualized by Man. He transforms it with the ‘plough of his spirit’. Everything that Man does today, the entire world of industry, is the transformation of the mineral kingdom. When someone quarries a rock in order to use the stones for the building of a house, when he builds a cathedral, all this changes the nature of the mineral kingdom by artificial means. In the fourth round [or Condition of Life] Man can work upon the mineral kingdom in this way. With the plant, on the contrary, he can as yet do nothing of this kind. The whole mineral kingdom will be transformed by Man. To a great extent this will be brought about by oscillating electricity no longer requiring wires. Here Man will be working right into the molecules and atoms. At the end of the fourth round, he will have transformed the entire mineral kingdom.

From the fifth round onwards Man will do the same with the plant kingdom. He will be able consciously to carry out the process which is now carried out by the plant. As the plant takes in carbonic acid and builds up its body from the carbon, so the human being of the fifth round will himself create his body out of the materials of his environment. Sex will cease to exist. Man will then himself have to work on his body, will have to produce it for himself. The same process of transforming carbon, which the plant now carries out unconsciously, will then be carried out consciously by Man. He will then transform matter just as today the plant transforms the air into carbon. That is the true alchemy. Carbon is the Philosopher's Stone.

1905-10-05-GA093A

SWCC, see also: Radioactivity#1905-10-05-GA093A

Seven conditions of form (CoF) together make up a Condition of Life (CoL, or Round). At the present time the Earth is going through its fourth CoL and this is the mineral.
During this time it is the task of mankind to work upon the mineral kingdom. A man is already working on the mineral kingdom when he takes a flint and hammers it into a wedge-shaped tool with which he makes other objects, when he transports rocks and builds pyramids out of the stones, when he makes tools out of metals, when he conducts electric current in a network over the earth; in all this man is working upon the mineral kingdom. Thus man puts into service the whole mineral kingdom. He makes the Earth into something entirely of his own devising. When the painter turns his mind to a combination of colours he is also working upon the mineral kingdom.
We are now in the midst of this activity, and in the course of the next epochs the Earth will have become completely transformed, so that eventually there will be no single atom on the earth that has not been worked upon by Man.
In earlier times these atoms became more and more solidified; now however they are becoming increasingly separated. Radioactivity did not exist in earlier times and could not therefore be discovered. It has only existed for a few thousand years, because now the atoms split up more and more.
When the Fourth CoL comes to an end the entire mineral kingdom will have been worked upon by the hand of Man.
When it has been completely worked through by Man, then, in order that the fruits of this work can be manifested, the Earth must pass over into an astral condition in which forms can develop.
The Earth then passes over into a Mental Globe and then into the Higher Mental condition, the Arupic [unformed spirit world]. It then disappears altogether out of these conditions into a shorter Pralaya.
It then enters once more into a new Arupic condition, that of the next, the Fifth CoL; then into a Rupic condition and then into an astral condition. After this it appears physically once more.
Everything which Man worked into the mineral kingdom during the Fourth CoL reappears [in this next fifth CoL] and grows up as the plant kingdom; for instance [the] Cologne cathedral will appear as a plant in the next CoL or Round.

1973 - Ernst Hagemann

Source: original in DE: ' Weltenäther, Elementarwesen, Naturreiche, Texte aus der Geisteswissenschaft Rudolf Steiners, zusammengestellt und bearbeitet von Dr. Ernst Hagemann' (1973), translated as 'World ether, elemental beings, kingdoms of nature' (1993, republished 2008).

Extract adapted SWCC for readability and terminology consistent with the site.

[After Old Moon]
After the Earth's re-emergence from this great pralaya, the creator powers separated out the parts of the spiritual substance - which had become chaotic during the spiritual sleep – and which they needed for their own evolution and for the further evolution of the nature kingdoms. (2020)
[Earth rounds perspective – the first Conditions of Life]
The fourth metamorphosis of the Earth, or Earth evolution proper, began with the 148th Condition of Form. The evolution of the Earth proper goes through seven rounds; this would be the 22nd to the 28th round, each with seven Conditions of Form - thus 49 Conditions of Form, namely, the 148th to the 196th. (See chart - reference to Schema FMC00.196B)

The first Condition of Life (CoL) of the Earth stage of planetary evolution is the 22nd round or Condition of Life ‘overall’, which comprises the 148th to 154th Conditions of Form (CoF), a comprehensive repetition of the Old Saturn condition occurring at a higher level. (4) A gigantic earth-fire ball formed during the first "small cycle". (22nd round) (2) This Earth-fire ball was an "ensouled and spiritual organism." (4)

A comprehensive repetition of the Old Sun condition occurred (at a higher Level) in the following second "small cycle", or 23rd Condition of Life with its 155th to 161st Conditions of Form. Airy substance became incorpo-rated into the Earth's fire body. The warmth enkindled life in it and produced sound in the airy substance which surged around in space. (2)(4)

A comprehensive repetition of the Old Moon condition occurred at a higher level during the third "small cycle" or 24th Condition of Life with its 162nd to 168th Conditions of Form. The watery element was now added to the airy and warmth substances of the Earth.

After the 24th round, the Earth's organism dissolved again and went through a short sleep or small pralaya:"Here everything became an undifferentiated mass again (a chaos); and at the end of it began the fourth earth Condition of Life (CoL), in which we are living today." (2)(4) .

[Fourth and current mineral round or CoL – going round the CoF]
At the end of this small pralaya, the 25th round of the fourth Earth stage of planetary evolution began with the 169^th Condition of Form in the unformed (arupa) spirit world.
In it, humanity developed the first germ of the sentient soul. (4) Animals existed as the states of consciousness of archangeloi, plants as the states of consciousness of angels; and minerals as thoughts in the consciousness of Exusiai (SoF), and as thought germs in our human ancestors.(2, 214)
Everything became dissolved again during another short pralaya. (2) Then the Earth reemerged at the formed spirit world or rupa stage or 170th Condition of Form. During this globe or CoF, Man developed the first germ of the intellectual soul. (4) The animals became independent thought beings, the plants became independent astral beings, and minerals became independent etheric forms. (2)
After another short pralaya, the Earth continued to evolve at the astral level in its 171st Condition of Form, which in turn submerged into a small world sleep.
The following 172nd Condition of Form (CoF) is the one in which we are still living. lt began with the Polarian epoch.
To begin with, everything that had previously existed in the mineral, plant, animal, and human kingdoms, reemerged in a germinal state from the undifferentiated mass into which they had merged. (2)
This undifferentiated spirit mass reemerged as a gigantic etheric sphere which consisted of 'fine, living ether' and which was filled with small etheric spheres surrounded by astral human germs. The latter had drawn in everything which had been of an animal, plant, and mineral nature in previous Earth conditions. (2) A fine etheric body condensed out of its astral precursor. It was a conglomerate consisting of a basic mineral, etheric mass and etheric plants, animals and human beings; it was permeated by the three elementary kingdoms. (2, 216)

Discussion

Note 1 - Separation of the planets

FMC00.298 presents

CoL1 - Uranus, Vulcan, Saturn
CoL2 - Jupiter, Mars
CoL4 - Mercury, Venus (and Sun and Moon)

.

Notes:

1903-GA089 - Draft of a spiritual-scientific cosmology - Fragment from 1903/04

At the end of this document the "withdrawal of Mars" is discussed as an influence in the CoL4 stage as part of the changes corresponding in the Lemurian epoch -

Working hypothesis: this probably does not refer to the separation of Mars but instead to the withdrawal of the astral influence as depicted Schema FMC00.219 above - see also the astral Mars influence on Schema FMC00.451. To be clarified still with the original version of the text (still to be added on the site).

also:

Mercury influence in the second half of Earth evolution, related to Buddhi and Christ Impulse, the spiritualization of Mankind